This will be a quick written battle report. I dropped in to the local for a game and didn’t have much time to document with a camera. I’ve played two games now with the written Assassins rules allied in with the Grey Knights. I played with the Assassins a lot with the Witch Hunters codex. With the changes to Sisters of Battle those models were sadly collecting dust. I was really excited to get the Assassins release in White Dwarf since I do not play with any electronic material. Have you played with the Assassins yet? Let me know how you have fared. Here’s the rundown on my list. Grey Knights CAD HQ: Librarian- Banishment, Hammerhand and Vortex. Warlord trait Daemon-slayer Troops: Terminator Squad A- 5 models, 2 halberds, 3 swords, 1 incinerator Terminator Squad B- 5 models, 2 halberds, 2 swords, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon Heavy Support: Dreadknight- heavy incinerator, greatsword, personal teleporter Assassins Assassins Execution Force Formation: Callidus Assassin, Culexus Assassin, Eversor Assassin, Vindicare Assassin My opponent played Chaos. HQ: Sorceror- Mastery Level 3 (only power I remember is Invisibility) Daemon Prince (can’t remember if the Prince is HQ or Heavy) Troops: Chaos Space Marines- 10 models Chaos Space Marines- 10 models, Rhino transport Heavy Support Forgefiend Defiler We play a standard game of kill the enemy. No objectives. Just purge the opposition. I won first turn. The Shrine of Aquila is in the middle of the field blocking line of sight. I won first turn. I position all Grey Knight models as far forward as possible. Dreadknight is in the middle. Librarian with psycannon Terminators to the left. Incinerator terminators to the right. Devon positions models a few inches back from his front line. Forgefiend in hiding in some ruins to his right. Defiler is hiding in some ruins to his left. There are some trees in the middle of Devon’s deployment zone. The Sorceror and squad of Marines hang out in the trees. Rhino with other squad positioned in front of trees. Deamon Prince is to the right of the trees. I infiltrate all of my Assassins. Vindicare goes high in a building and can see everything except the Rhino. Callidus is placed 1 inch from Sorceror et al. Culexus and Eversor hide out in the Shrine and can only be seen by the Forgefiend. Turn 1– Devon is unable to seize. I move everything up except the Vindicare. Culexus shoots Daemon Prince three times and causes two wounds and then runs back into the Shrine during the shooting phase. I run all Grey Knights up. Incinerator squad hugs a dilapidated bastion to avoid the Defiler’s battle cannon. Librarian et al and Dreaknight run into Culexus’ 12″ range and drop down -3 leadership. Callidus neural shreds Sorceror et al and causes 4 casualties. I forget to fire the Vindicare. Devon moves the Rhino up and pops smoke. Defiler moves out of ruins and fires at the Dreadknight. Direct hit but no wound. Forgefiend fires at Librarian et al and does not cause any wounds. Sorceror casts invisibility on Prince with success. Casts two more powers but can’t remember what they are. Sorceror et al shoot the Callidus. Snap shots only on the first turns against the Callidus so they only cause one wound. The Prince charges the Callidus and the two high-five each other causing no wounds. Turn 2– Everything moves up except the Vindicare. Culexus nullifies all powers cast by the Sorceror due to 12″ bubble. Incinerator Terminators successfully harness hammerhand. Culexus absorbs 3 warp charges from the grey Knights and 3 from the Sorceror. I add three more dice from my pool and shoot the Sorceror et al and wipe the squad out. Psycannon Terminators shoot the Forgefiend and two hull points are removed. Vindicare shoots the Forgefiend and wrecks it. Incinerator Terminators and Dreadknight shoot the Rhino and remove one hull point. The Eversor charges the Prince to support the Callidus. Prince strikes first and causes no wounds. Callidus finishes the job on the Prince. Dreadknight and Incinerator Terminators charge the Rhino and wreck it. Chaos Marines disembark and are not pinned. Devon moves the Defiler out of terrain and takes a big risk. He shoots the cannon on the Incinerator Terminators and lands a direct hit. No casualties. Chaos Marines approach the Culexus and light it up with bolters. The Culexus goes down. Defiler charges the Terminators. No Grey Knight casualties. Two hull points removed from the Defiler. Turn 3- Dreadknight moves to Defiler to support Terminators. Eversor and Callidus approach the Marines cautiously on orders from the Librarian. The Librarian attempts to harness Vortex but Perils instead and takes a wound. Marines get lit up in shooting and four survive. Librarian with psycannon Terminators, Callidus and Eversor all attempt to charge the Marines and they all fail. Even with fleet the Assassins fail. Even with three dice to charge the Eversor fails. Dreadknight charges in and explodes the Defiler. No casualties in the explosion. Devon moves the four remaining Marines towards the Callidus. They rapid fire and kill the Callidus. Turn 4- Everything moves cautiously towards the four remaining Chaos Marines. The Librarian has ten dice to throw for Vortex. There is a good chance I will Perils but it doesn’t matter at this point. Four dice out of ten are a success. There are two sixes. The Librarian takes a wound but not before sending a mind Vortex over to Chaos. It’s a direct hit and that is game. This is the second game I have played with the Assassins and this list is hard to play against. The first game was against a Farsight Tau list. The Assassins are in your face fast. With massed fire they go down but if they get a chance they will leave a mark. The Culexus is brutal when teamed up with Grey Knights. The Assassin Formation is a wee bit overbearing with the smaller point games. Thankfully I had good sports with the two games I played. The foursome will have to be separated for a while.

I posted the report to generate some conversation as to how people are faring with and against Assassins.

The Assassins are not invincible that’s for sure. The game against the Tau the Broadsides killed the Callidus in combat. Go figure. My advice though is take the Culexus and Callidus down as soon as possible. The game would have been different if Devon focused fire on the Culexus first. The Forgefiend had line of site but he chose the Terminators instead. The Rhino could of driven around the Shrine, disembark the Marines and lite of the Culexus or Eversor.

In the end though thumbs up to Devon for his good attitude. I’ve been on the receiving end of a beat down plenty of times. I will pass on the formation for lower point games or depending on my opponent.

I am curious to try the formation in a higher points cost game to see how it could fare in a tournament setting. I know a power gamer I can try Grey Knights with Assassins against.